My map ; WIP

[landorl]

I like the first one. I like the cartoon like colors that you used.

[DanChops]

I agree with everyone else - these are some nice maps. I'm going to have to play around with that old paper tutorial sometime - you got stunning results in that parchement map.

A thought about the forests on your GIMP map. I've found that duplicating the mountain instructions for the forests creates overly exaggerated forests, at least for my tastes. I tweaked the forest steps a bit in my WIP map and found that the forests came out a bit more natural and subtle looking.

[Elvith Gent]

Thanks ! I didn't think original is a very great map, but if you say it is, it is ^^

I'm going to try with your method for forests. I will post the result.


Thanks, DanChops ! I didn't apply all your technique (because I didn't understand ... Can you explain more precisely ? Can you do screenshots ?), but I change clouds for plasma and I think it's already really better. Are you agree ?
Result :

[Elvith Gent]

I do a new parchment version but older, more damaged.

I think you will like it ^^

[DanChops]

I'm going to try with your method for forests. I will post the result.

Thanks, DanChops ! I didn't apply all your technique (because I didn't understand ... Can you explain more precisely ? Can you do screenshots ?), but I change clouds for plasma and I think it's already really better. Are you agree ?

I agree, simply doing plasma clouds in place of solid noise clouds gives the forest a better look. Sorry about the lack of clarity in my explanation in the other thread; I'll try putting together some screenshots together to explain what I did a bit more clearly later today after work.

I do a new parchment version but older, more damaged.

I think you will like it ^^

I love the hole in the middle. Very nice. Is there anyway to smooth out the edges of the paper so they don't look quite so pixelated?

[Elvith Gent]

I think it should be better. I apply a 3 px gaussian blur to the Fuzz layer's border. I let the precedent version to compare.

[jfrazierjr]

For me at least, the reason I really like the first(and third) version is your cliffs at the norther edge of the map. They look nice and really make the cliffs stand out. With the 2nd version, it just looks out of place. You might want to add some highlights in grey to the cliff face to simular ridges in the cliff. Perhaps someone else would have some other suggestions also.

Joe

[DanChops]

Here's a step-by-step on how I made my forests, with screen shots to help explain where my words aren't quite up to snuff.

1- With all my geographic features, I find myself starting with a transparent layer and sketching a rough outline in black of where I want the feature to be. So, with the forests, I start out with the sketch:



2- I fill in the forest area with white, the rest with black, and apply the Gaussian blur. This is the first layer of Rob's Three-Layer Sandwich (the TLS.)



3- This is where I start to diverge a bit from Rob's instructions. I fill the middle "noise" layer with plasma clouds (Filter-->Render-->Clouds-->Plasma) instead of solid noise clouds. I set the turbulence as high as it can go in order to get lots of detail in the edges of the forest.



This results in a kaleidescope of color:



4- I create the clip layer of the TLS according to Rob's instructions, adjust the color levels, and end up with this:



(I've reached my per-post maximum of five attached files. To be continued in the next post...)

[DanChops]

5- Create a Forest mask as per Rob's instructions.



6- Do the "Copy Visible" and paste as a new layer trick that Rob demonstrates. You end up with something like this:



7- One problem is that there are all the colors of the rainbow in this layer. Set your colors to black (foreground) and white (background) and do a gradient map (Colors-->Map-->Gradient Map). This puts the layer back into grayscale.



8- Normalize the colors to stretch the color range out (Colors-->Auto-->Normalize)



9- Make a copy of this layer for later, and then do a gradient map with your forest colors:



(Notice that since the colors I used for the grass and the forest are similar, it's difficult to distinguish them at this point.)

[DanChops]

10- The next major point of departure between this method and the one Rob outlines is that I do two bump maps. The first is to give the illusion of height relative to the surrounding area. I call that the height-bump map. The second is to give the illusion of a bit of height variance within the forest. I call that the texture-bump map.

For the height bump map, follow Rob’s directions. Name the grayscale copy of “Forest Color” you made earlier “Forest Height Bump Map.” Create a new layer set to overlay, filled with neutral gray, and do a bump map with the “Forest Height Bump Map” set as the source of the map. I keep the depth pretty low (at 10) and the elevation moderately high (at 50).





11- For the texture bump map, create a new layer set to overlay, filled with neutral gray, and do a bump map with the “Forest Texture” layer set as the source of the map. (That’s the middle layer of the earlier TLS filled with plasma clouds.) Be sure to apply the forest mask